Hutch turned the page and realized the one thing that could drag Big Tag anywhere he didn’t want to go.
Family.
There was a collage of photographs showing the same young woman, but this time with a man. A couple of the photos looked like they’d been taken from CCTV, but some were definitely from a personal camera, one with a long-range capability.
Kyle Hawthorne. The man in the photos holding hands with the lovely and probably deeply corrupt woman was Kyle.
Kyle, who had maneuvered himself into a situation where he had access to one of the most influential CEOs in the world.
“I can’t tell Sean because he’ll have to tell Grace,” Ian admitted, his eyes on the table in front of him. “How am I supposed to tell my sister-in-law that her son might be working for the same organization that tried to kill her and her whole family?”
“Or he’s investigating them.” Despite his tattletale ways, Hutch couldn’t see Kyle as a man who would betray his family like that. “Does Kyle know the story? Does he know what happened to his mother?”
What had happened to Grace Taggart had been getting shoved off a building by a rogue CIA operative after watching the same man nearly kill Sean. He’d read the files on those dark days and struggled to see how Kyle would reconcile working with people who could hurt his family.
“At the time he didn’t. We told Kyle and his brother, David, that what happened to Grace was an accident, but he could have found out if he was working with the Agency the way we suspect he was,” Adam explained. “There’s a report on why I believe Kyle at the very least worked with the CIA on several occasions. His military records don’t match up with my facial recognition. I can place him on different continents from where the military records put him.”
The facial recognition software Adam had invented was the centerpiece of his investigative empire. It was likely why the senator had come to him.
“Did you ask the senator if her daughter had a boyfriend?” Kyle looked awfully cozy with the blonde.
“They hadn’t talked in the six weeks before her disappearance,” Adam explained. “Jake is getting more information from her, but she seemed to genuinely not know anything. She’s worried about her daughter. I had Eve work up a profile on her and she suspects if the daughter is doing something criminal, the mother isn’t aware of it.”
“I asked them not to show the senator the pictures of Kyle,” Ian admitted.
Because the last thing they needed was pictures of Kyle leaking on the Internet or the senator wanting to make him a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance. “Have we thought about asking him what’s going on?”
“Do you think I didn’t put him through a lot of talks before he hired on?” Tag asked. “I asked him flat out if he’d worked for the Agency. He said no. Should I believe him when he tells me no, Uncle Ian, I’m not using your company to get to your corporate clients? Shortly after Julia Ennis went missing, Kyle left the military, and a shocking amount of cash showed up in his accounts. Yeah, he hasn’t told his parents about that either.”
“We’re worried that Kyle took Julia’s job.” Adam got to the heart of the matter.
“I’m sorry, Hutch. I was worried about him lying to me about working with the Agency, but I did not have this intelligence in front of me when I gave you this job,” Tag said. “I would never have sent him out knowing what I know today. I have to decide what to do.”
“You let me do my job.” Hutch closed the folder and handed it back to Adam. “I can’t take this with me. We’re going to be in close quarters, and if he finds it on me, he’ll figure out I’m watching him.”
“I know I joke about what a dipshit you are,” Tag began.
Hutch held up a hand to stop him. “Sarcasm is a part of who you are. We both know how good I am at this type of undercover. You don’t have to tell me.” But he’d had a day. “Or you should. Go on. I could use some praise.”
“It’s because the chick didn’t like the sex,” Adam whispered.
Adam was a dick.
Tag ignored him. “Hutch, you’re one of my best agents. I don’t send you out in the field often because you’re brilliant behind a computer, but when I needed you, you came through in a way few people ever do. I trust you to handle this.”
And that was why he put up with Big Tag’s shit. Because at the heart of it Big Tag was the best father figure he’d ever had. He would never say that though. The dude had gotten sensitive since he turned fifty.